[Nz2003] Blenheim -> Queenstown

[Edmund A. Hintz]

    This report covers 3 days-technical difficulties with the photo
software and lousy dialup connections (60% packet loss) have kept us
fairly out of touch. Out of Blenheim we headed again for the west coast,
targeting Westport. The drive is just fantastic, mountains, deep river
gorges, crystal streams, forests, the works. Many parts of the road are
very similar to Kings Canyon NP, which is one of my personal favorites.
On arrival at Westport, we decided it looked more like a shipping town
and chose to head for the coastline, only 12km out. The fact that it had
an obnoxious name (Cape Foulwind) helped in the decision too. The views
from Foulwind were awesome, but there were no motels. There were several
BnB/Homestays, so we stopped at one that was still showing vacancy. The
location was brilliant, but it was a true homestay, renting a room in
somebody's house, which wasn't a good idea for us. You see, we have
Hunter in the back seat for the better part of a day, and once we let him
out, he's got some serious energy to run off. Generally he bounces off
the walls, ceilings, floors, chairs, and any other items in sight. In
somebody's house, with lots of nice knick knacks and picture frames
about, this isn't so hot an idea. They referred us off to a BnB down the
road at Carter's Beach with a fully contained unit, the Bellaville BnB,
run by Marlene and Ross Burrow. 'Twas the best place we've stayed thus
far, Marlene really outdid herself trying to make it comfortable for us,
while also being unobtrusive, while Ross gave us some excellent travelers
advice. It's also just a few blocks from the beach, so we walked down and
took a swim. First time I've been the ocean for years-I used to spend
virtually every day of my summers at the beach as a teenager but the SFBA
just doesn't have the same opportunities, and of course Austin was a bit
lacking in beaches. Hunter went out to about his chest, then climbed
straight up on top of me and hitched a ride in; gonna have to work on
that boy...

    On leaving Carter's Beach we skipped several interesting attractions
in the name of making time, which in hindsight was a mistake. There was
an ATV rental outfit, a rafting ride through underground caves, and most
notable of all, helicopter rides up to Franz Josef and Fox glaciers. When
we hit the towns for the glaciers I stopped to check, but they only had
flights around 5pm, 2 hours away, and we had a solid 1.5 hr drive down to
Haast where we'd made a motel reservation. So I decided to go on. And
just out of town we saw the turnout to go up to the glacier, 4km, so we
went. And by the time all was said and done it was 4:15, so I decided to
hell with it and drove back into town. But of course, all the slots were
closed, so we missed out. Worse yet, once we got to Hasst, the motel was
a real dive, the worst I've ever stayed in, including back in my days as
a druggie-and I stayed in some pretty sad motels in those days. This
place was in terrible disrepair, mattresses were concave from years of
use, lights were out all over the place, the buildings look like they
haven't seen a coat of paint since Reganomics, just a real dive. No
crackheads, but if there were any in Haast that's where they'd go. Given
that we'd originally thought about staying at Franz Joseph, in hindsight
we should've done it, had a nice place to stay, and got the chopper ride
to the glacier. Live and learn.

    We got an early start out of the hotel, which wasn't hard at all for
us, but then proceeded to waste about an hour at the local heli-charter
outfit. Almost took a ride out into the Mt. Aspiring NP, but decided the
weather was too overcast, and instead headed for Queenstown. The first
100km or so out of Hasst was some great mountainous terrain, with quite a
few waterfalls. Sam's rather a big fan of waterfalls so we didn't make
such good time here, lots of stops for photos, but well worth it.
Considering they're in a drought down here, that drive must be uber-
spectacular when there's some good rain. The balance of the drive sees
the entry into LOTR terrain. Much of the trilogy was shot around
Queenstown (in fact several tours run to shooting locations) and it
starts to look like it. Lots of rugged craggy peaks, snow, clouds, lakes,
good stuff. Just shy of Queenstown, in Wanaka, we had a detour to
Puzzling World. You've seen those Escher drawings, where tricks of
perspective and shading create illusions, well this place is built on
that concept. Lots of really cool real-life illusions (but very few
pictures-video is pretty good at conveying the weirdness but photos don't
cut it). Also, a great big maze, the goal of which is to get to all 4
corners then find your way out. Pretty tough actually. Hunter and I got 3
corners, but he was all tuckered out and wanted to give up, and once he
did I didn't care enough to finish it, wanted to go inside for the
illusions. The signs say the average cumulative distance is 1-4km, and
that seems about right, it was a good long walk. We finished it off with
finding a motel in Arrowtown, just outside of Queenstown. It's a historic
town, founded after a huge gold find back in 1862. Much in common here
with places like Placerville and Sutter's Mill in CA, including many of
the miners. Apparently a good number of folks who failed to strike it
rich in the CA gold rush of the 1850s came to NZ during their gold rush,
yet another way in which NZ mirrors CA. Anyway, we expect to be in the
area for the next 2 days at least, we're planning to take a fixed-wing
flight out to Milford Sound for the boat tour, and also at least one of
the LOTR tours. There are 3, one by air and 2 by 4WD (Road to Mordor,
Amon Hen, etc on one, and Rivendell, Lothlorien, etc on the other). Given
the choice Hunter wanted the 4WD ride to Morder. Plucky little bugger.

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Regards,

Ed Hintz
ed@hintz.org